Indian telecom industry is quite huge. Almost everyone in India is now using a mobile phone. Let me give you some interesting statistics. By May 2012 the country had 929 million mobile subscribers, up from 350
million just 40 months earlier. The mobile market was continuing to
expand at an annual rate in excess of 40% coming into 2010. That's quite a big number, and so big is the competition.

We have so many different telecom provider everyone trying its best to lure customers. We have already seen price wars among telecom companies and all of them are now offering very cheap local calling rates. Infact the price war is now shifting towards towards international calls as now MTNL is initiating the new price cuts. Many Indians are living in USA and people here make lots and lots of international calls to United States.

MTNL is trying to target those customers by offering very cheap USA Calling Plans and these are surely not to be missed. ISD tariffs for its GSM and 3G subscribers were slashed by MTNL few days back.

MTNL is now offering Rs 1/min calls to many countries which include China, US, Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. This rate is effective from July 1st 2010. The earlier price of MTNL for these countries was 6.20-9.20 per minute so this is a huge drop. MTNL US Calling is now at just Rs 1 per minute.

Offcourse if you are using Wifi or 3G on your mobile, then I would suggest you to use mobile voip and applications like Viber, Skype, Tango and Whatsapp. These are highly useful applications offering free international calling and messaging.

Similarly, call rates will be Rs 3 per minute (Changed from Rs 12 per minute) to countries like Argentina, Bahrain, Cyprus, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia and Sweden. Call rates to countries like Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Columbia, Indonesia, Iraq, Russia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam will come down to Rs 5 minute from Rs 18. The new offer is a promotional one and valid for a period of 3 months. This is part of a scheme to effect reduction in call rates to 26 countries.

According to MTNL CMD, MTNL is expecting Rs 10-15 crore revenue addition through their ISD rate reductions, which, in all, include 26 countries through volume growth. About 1-2 lakh more subscribers are expected to add to their existing 50 lakh user base base on account of this.

This step by MTNL should start the move of international rate reduction in India telecom. Lets see, what other major like Airtel, Vodafone, Tata and Reliance has to offer. The day should not be far when you will be able to make international calls at local rates !!